Thursday, we’re talking about Martin Luther. In the 16th century, he ignited a movement to rethink the traditions and beliefs of Christianity. He came to be seen as a heretic or revolutionary, but the historian Craig Harline said Luther never set out to be either of those things. He began as a cranky friar who obsessed about the fate of his soul. He went looking for answers, and when he found them, refused to keep his mouth shut. Harline has just written a new book called A World Ablaze.

Bishop Oscar Solis has no idea why Pope Francis plucked him from sunny Los Angeles and sent him to lead the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City. Maybe God, he says, has the answer. The first Filipino to lead an American diocese, Solis entered the seminary at 11 years old, speaks four languages, loves golf, and brings abundant humor to his ministries. He joins us Thursday to talk about where his faith in God has led him in life, and to discuss the challenges facing the modern Catholic Church.

Journalist Lesley Hazleton says that if you want to understand headlines from the Middle East today, you have to understand the story of Islam’s first civil war. When the prophet Muhammad died, factions in the young faith became embroiled in a succession crisis. The power grabs, violence, and political machinations resulted in the schism between Sunni and Shia. Tuesday, Hazleton joins Doug to tell the story of Islam’s sectarian divide and to explain how that history influences current events.

Wednesday, our guest is Biblical scholar John Dominic Crossan, whose latest book explores the bipolar nature of divine violence in both the Old and New Testaments. On the one hand, God and Jesus assert messages of love and equity for mankind. Then suddenly, plowshares are beaten into swords and horses are up to their bridles in blood. Crossan joins guest host Elaine Clark to discuss whether God is violent or nonviolent and what the answer tells us about ourselves and the civilizations we’ve built.

Why is it that conservative Christians are more likely to be climate change skeptics than any other religious group in America? Katharine Hayhoe doesn’t see any reason why science and religion should be mutually exclusive. She’s a leading climate scientist, but she’s also an evangelical who’s married to a minister. She says part of the problem is that we’ve confused politics with faith. Friday, Hayhoe joins us to talk about religion, the environment, and bridging the divide between them. (Rebroadcast)

Religion scholar Candida Moss began thinking about Christian martyrs when she heard a sermon comparing the plight of today's believers to that of the early church. But when she started exploring what early Christians really endured, she learned that these stories of victimization had been exaggerated and even invented to inspire the faithful. Wednesday, Moss joins Doug to talk about what she calls the myth of persecution and how those stories continue to create the "us vs them" mindset of today. (Rebroadcast)